Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq stressed on Wednesday that the Lebanese army can confront terrorists and emerge successful from the battle, saying that the government will not cooperate with the Syrian army to end the armed clashes in the northeastern town of Arsal.
“The only problem confronting the army is safeguarding civilians,” Mashnouq said in comments published in al-Akhbar newspaper.

Saudi Ambassador Ali Awadh Asiri has said that Riyadh's pledge to assist the Lebanese army in December was not mere ink on paper.
“I will reiterate to (army chief) Gen. Jean Qahwaji Riyadh's support for the Lebanese army,” Asiri told As Safir newspaper published on Wednesday.

Speaker Nabih Berri has praised Saudi King Abdullah for pledging to accelerate delivery of weapons to the Lebanese army under a Saudi-financed deal and lauded al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri over his stance on the fighting in the northeastern border town of Arsal.
Abdullah's pledge “came as a result of phone conversations I made with Saudi officials to mobilize the $3 billion Saudi grant,” Berri told his visitors.

An agreement was reached on Tuesday evening in the northeastern border region of Arsal after the Muslim Scholars Committee mediated to release all soldiers held captive by extremists militants, and to assure the withdrawal of foreign armed groups from the Bekaa area.
However, hours after the accord was sealed, armed groups violated the truce and attacked army posts in Arsal's Wadi al-Raayan and Wadi Ata regions.

The March 14 coalition demanded the cabinet on Tuesday to close the border between Lebanon and Syria, calling also for army and international force deployment in accordance with U.N. Security Council resolution 1701.
"We call on the cabinet to work on closing the border between Lebanon and Syria in front of any gunman coming to Lebanon or leaving to Syria,” former Prime Minister and al-Mustaqbal bloc head MP Fouad Saniora said after an expanded meeting of the March 14 alliance at the Center House.

The Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc condemned on Tuesday the clashes between the army and gunmen from the al-Nusra Front in the northeastern town of Arsal, saying that the attack against the army is tantamount to an assault against the whole of Lebanon.
It said in a statement after its weekly meeting: “We hold Hizbullah and those allied to it largely responsible for the developments in Arsal and what Lebanon and its army have to endure.”

Hizbullah on Tuesday denied that its fighters were involved in the ongoing battles between army troops and extremist militants in the eastern border town of Arsal, hailing the cabinet's “firm stance to confront takfiri terrorism.”
"What is happening on ground, like dealing with the military situation, protecting citizens and confronting terrorist armed groups is exclusively the responsibility of the Lebanese army,” Hizbullah said in a statement released on Tuesday afternoon.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun declared on Tuesday that he had long warned against the spread of the repercussions of the Syrian crisis to Lebanon, warning against holding negotiations with terrorists fighting the army in the northeastern town of Arsal.
He said after the Change and Reform bloc's weekly meeting: “I warn against carrying out negotiations with terrorists as we should negotiate with Damascus, not the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.”

A Syrian national has been kidnapped for ransom while he was on his way from the Rafik Hariri International Airport to the Bekaa, the state-run National News Agency reported on Tuesday.
"Syrian national Mahmoud Mohammed Sayyah Moudawar reported to the Bayader al-Adas police station in Western Bekaa the abduction of his uncle Abdul Moneim Mahmoud Moudawar,” the NNA detailed.

The Russian Foreign Ministry stated on Tuesday that Syria, Iraq and Lebanon are facing a “common danger” manifested in “international terrorism that does not acknowledge borders between countries and seeks to seize more lands.”
"It is necessary to denounce double standards and to abstain from taking steps that do not lead to containing the situation but on the contrary, could encourage terrorism and extremists' threats in the turbulent Middle East,” Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a released statement.
